No injunction for inmate who remains in administrative segregation

This is a tough case for the Second Circuit, asked to overrule prison officials who plan to keep an inmate confined in "administrative segregation" for the foreseeable future even though he has not committed a violent incident in jail in more than 20 years. The Court of Appeals rules against the inmate.

The case is H'Shaka v. O'Gorman, a summary order issued on February 13.While the plaintiff has not committed a violent infraction in prison in more than 20 years, he did kill someone for no apparent reason before he turned 18, he attacked a correction officer with a razor blade, severely slashing his face, and committed four other assaults between 1996 and 1999. He remains in administrative segregation under a regulation that permits that if officials think his "presence in general population would pose a threat to the safety and security of the facility." That means plaintiff is in his cell 23 hours a day without access to prison programs or worship, and his one-hour-a-day recreation is spent in a cage.

Plaintiff sought an injunction in the district court, claiming the continued confinement violates the Constitution. The district court denied the injunction and the Second Circuit (Katzmann, Hall and Lynch) says plaintiff cannot satisfy his heavy burden in showing the trial court clearly erred. The leading case in this area is Proctor v. LeClaire, 846 F.3d 597 (2d Cir. 2017), which requires prison officials to meaningful review his segregated status under the Due Process Clause. This involves a balancing test, with prison security on one side of the equation. The decisionmakers submitted declarations stating they are open to freeing up plaintiff inside the prison at some point in the future, but they were never cross-examined, "so we are in a poor position to judge their credibility at this stage, let alone to second-guess the district court's assessment," the court says. In any event, it does look like the jail considered plaintiff's recent behavior.

While the Second Circuit notes "the well-documented and devastating psychological and physical effects that prolonged isolation can have," the record does not speak to the specific harms that plaintiff will face if he remains in "ad seg," as they say in the prison world. Overall, maybe the record will shape up differently in discovery, the Court of Appeals says, but for now, plaintiff is not entitled to a preliminary injunction.